1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicles, and more specifically to a vehicle including an engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP-A 2005-7995 discloses an example of a conventional technique in this field. JP-A 2005-7995 discloses a small vehicle in which a drive unit is mounted at a rear region of a vehicle body frame via a sub-frame. In the small vehicle, the drive unit is composed of an engine and a transmission connected to the engine via a V-belt type automatic transmission device. A muffler is mounted on the left side of the vehicle and is connected to an engine cylinder via an exhaust pipe. At a lower end portion of the muffler, a generally L-shaped exhaust gas discharge pipe is connected, and the pipe is routed through a hole formed in a sound insulation board mounted on a lower portion of the sub-frame, and is brought to the outside. The exhaust gas passes through the pipe and then is discharged rearward from below the muffler and the sound insulation board. The cylinder is covered with a shroud, which provides a path for a cooling wind. A muffler cover which covers the muffler is connected to the shroud. The muffler cover has an opening in its lower surface, and the opening is located above the hole of the sound insulation board. The cooling wind is introduced from the shroud into the muffler cover, cools the muffler and thereafter is discharged below via the opening of the muffler cover and the hole of the sound insulation board.
In JP-A 2005-7995, the pipe connected to the muffler is relatively short and is exposed to the outside from below the sound insulation board. Therefore, there is a possibility that noise from the muffler is not attenuated so much and the noise comes out of the vehicle as the exhaust gas is discharged from the muffler. Also, since the hole in the sound insulation board is located below the opening which is formed in the lower surface of the muffler cover, there is a possibility that noise such as engine vibration noise is not attenuated so much, resulting in noise leakage via the shroud and the muffler cover, out of the vehicle from the hole in the sound insulation board.